Government of Quebec Awards $657,000 For Electric School Bus Project

The government of Quebec’s plan to become an EV manufacturing center has begun. The Premier announced that the government will be contributing $657,000 toward a project to develop an electric school bus.

Their partner in this enterprise is Lion Bus, a company based in St. Jerome, Quebec that manufactures conventional buses for the North American market.

The all-electric SST-e, slated to hit the streets of California next year.

The idea is to develop a 100% electric bus based on their current C model, with a range of about 90 km. This translates into a practical range of 180 km, assuming that the buses recharge during the day. The electrified school bus is expected to displace 8,000 liters (or about 2,000 gallons) of diesel annually.

Lion Bus believes that demand for electric school buses is rising and expects it to reach 250 buses a year by 2018.

Daniel Breton, Parliamentary Assistant to the Premier for Transport Electrification, was also present for the announcement and had this to say:

This demonstrates once again that sustainable development goes hand in hand with economic development and that we must take advantage of the electrical expertise that we have in Quebec.

As for me, I can’t wait to see the day when I can put my son on an electric school bus!

It seems that some school buses are being converted to CNG. That alone is WAY better for kids health than diesel. Electric would also be great but they would still need diesel for long field trips and away games.

Oh, I get it. It has a big radiator because it’s still rockin a diesel in there. That’s why. The article just announced this funding to “develop” an electric school bus. There is no mention of a prototype being built or anything. So that is the picture of a regular Lion Bus.